Getting Started

Beginning your online career can appear to be daunting.  If there is one bit of advice to be shared, it would be "don't despair" we've all been there.  I will endeavor to share with you, step-by-step what it takes to get started.

Step 1 - The Idea

You have found a concept or idea and would like to sell that idea online.  This could be a product of your own, or it could be an affiliate or reseller program that you believe you can market successfully. 

Chances are if you are going to "affiliate" with a program, they will provide you with the sales tools necessary to build the site.  The same can apply to a "reseller" relationship.

Where many folks get confused is that they assume the program they are affiliating with or reselling, provides space for them to place the sales pages they (the program) provide for the program.  Some do. . .most do not.

This means that you need to have your own domain and this leads us to Step 2.

Step 2 - The Name

Just as you register the birth of a child, you also must register the birth of your new business.  Selecting a name can be simple or challenging depending on the name you wish to use.  There is a good possibility that the name you select may already be taken.

Click here to download a tool that can help you find a name for your business

When you register your domain name, it is assigned "nameservers."  Nameservers are assigned based on the address where the domain name is located.  

When you first register your domain, the nameservers default to those of the registrar you are using.  Once you order your hosting (next step), it is necessary to go back to your registrar and change the nameservers to those owned by the company where you will be hosting your domain.  This tells the browsers where to find your domain.  

This is a very important step especially if you are hiring someone to build your website.  Changing those nameservers takes from 24-72 hours.  Unless they are changed, the person you hire (or yourself) can't get in to the site to upload files.

Step 3 - The Home

Now that you have a domain name for your business, you must select a home.  This is where your domain will "live" and thrive on the Internet. There are literally hundreds of hosting services and it is up to you to choose one of them.

The prices to rent your home can range anywhere from "free" to over $100.  While "free rent" sounds like a good idea, like anything in life, you get what you pay for.

Free hosting usually comes with a "payback."  The payback is usually having the "host" or "landlord" putting his or her advertising on your site.  This is not a good idea.  People become distracted very easily when surfing the internet.  Having advertising on your site that does not promote your business is a very bad idea.  You will lose potential customers for your offers.

Our hosting service, Host All Biz has a wide range of services available for very decent rates depending on your need.  You will even find packages that include being able to host more than one site.  This is a great value and I encourage you to check it out at:  http://www.hostallbiz.com.

Step 4 - The Design

You have now made good progress.  You have a name and you have rented a home.  Now you need to design your home.  There are options available to  you for this task as well.

You can design and develop it yourself.  You will need to have an html editor and there are several out there.  Dreamweaver is the "Rolls Royce" with the price tag to boot. I believe it runs around $600. I have it, but have never used it because the learning curve is quite extensive and have never had the time to break away from work to learn how to use it.

The most popular and the one that I use is FrontPage. It is a Microsoft
product and when I purchased mine it was around $130. This is something
that you buy locally. . .if I remember correctly, I bought mine at Best Buy.

Both of these html programs are known as "WYSIWYG" programs. That
is pronounced "whiz-e-wig." It means "what you see is what you get." They
allow you to work as if you were using a word processor, but have the html
code building in the background. You can click on a separate tab to see the actual code behind the scenes.

You will need to learn some basic code, but that will come as you work with
a WYSIWYG. A cheap alternative would be a program called CuteHTML.
You can find it here: http://www.globalscape.com  You can get a "free" demo download, then upgrade and purchase it for somewhere around $30-$50. 

It is not as desirable as Front Page, because you do edit in html code, but you can "see" the results of the work on the page as you are working by clicking a special link.

Your other alternative is to hire someone to build the site for you.  This is a good alternative if you do not wish to wait to get your business off the ground.  Again, that is one of the services that All Biz Services provides.  The rates are very reasonable and your satisfaction is the primary element.

Regardless of which method you choose, build it yourself or hire someone else, there are excellent ebooks available to help you.  Even if you do hire someone, you will need to know how to maintain the site afterward.  Here are links to a few excellent resources:

http://www.newbieclub.com/?simple where you will find an excellent book entitle, "Your First Website Builder."

http://www.hotbookstore.com/bookstore/cgiguide/ This is an excellent resource for learning cgi and will help you with basic coding.

http://hotbooks.allbizpro.com/65instant/index.html  This book is filled with web design information and tutorials.

Step 5 - Moving In

Don't falter. . .you're almost there!  Let's recap what you have accomplished thus far.  You have a name, you have a new home and you have designed it meet your needs.  Now it's moving day!

The best method to load your pages is also the simplest.  It is called FTP, or File Transfer Protocol.  Just as the name implies, it establishes the protocol to communicate from your personal computer to the "server" computer where you have rented space.

I use and recommend WS_FTP Pro.  You can download a trial copy at
http://www.ipswitch.com  It comes with instructions that are very easy to follow.

In a nutshell you will have a split screen that has your personal computer files on the left side and the server computer on the right.  You transfer files back and forth by using directional arrows.  It is really quite simple.

Whew!  As I mentioned at the very beginning of this page, beginning your online career can appear to be daunting.  Hopefully I have broken down the process into "bit size chunks" for you.  Should you have any questions, just send me off an email and I'll do my best to answer them.